But even these terms of art, or customary expressions, are not to be
used with affectation, and with a needless repetition, where they are
not called for.

Nor should a tradesman write those out-of-the-way words, though it is in
the way of the business he writes about, to any other person, who he
knows, or has reason to believe, does not understand them--I say, he
ought not to write in those terms to such, because it shows a kind of
ostentation, and a triumph over the ignorance of the person they are
written to, unless at the very same time you add an explanation of the
terms, so as to make them assuredly intelligible at the place, and to
the person to whom they are sent.

A tradesman, in such cases, like a parson, should suit his language to
his auditory; and it would be as ridiculous for a tradesman to write a
letter filled with the peculiarities of this or that particular trade,
which trade he knows the person he writes to is ignorant of, and the
terms whereof he is unacquainted with, as it would be for a minister to
quote the Chrysostome and St Austin, and repeat at large all their
sayings in the Greek and the Latin, in a country church, among a parcel
of ploughmen and farmers. Thus a sailor, writing a letter to a surgeon,
told him he had a swelling on the north-east side of his face--that his
windward leg being hurt by a bruise, it so put him out of trim, that he
always heeled to starboard when he made fresh way, and so run to
leeward, till he was often forced aground; then he desired him to give
him some directions how to put himself into a sailing posture again. Of
all which the surgeon understood little more than that he had a swelling
on his face, and a bruise in his leg.

It would be a very happy thing, if tradesmen had all their _lexicon